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Should Democracy Be Promoted or Demoted?

Bush did not enter the White House with a mission to promote freedom around the world. As a presidential candidate, he put forward a modest foreign policy agenda that eschewed nation building. The events of September 11, 2001, however, radically jarred his thinking on the nature of international threats and triggered a fundamental reevaluation of his administration’s national security policy that elevated democracy promotion as a central objective of his foreign policy agenda.

by Michael McFaul and Francis Fukuyama
published by
Washington Quarterly
 on November 27, 2007

Source: Washington Quarterly

In his second inaugural address, on January 20, 2005, President George W. Bush used the word “freedom” 25 times, “liberty” 12 times, and “democracy” or “democratic” three times. Bush did not enter the White House with a mission to promote freedom around the world. As a presidential candidate, he put forward a modest foreign policy agenda that eschewed nation building. The events of September 11, 2001, however, radically jarred his thinking on the nature of international threats and triggered a fundamental reevaluation of his administration’s national security policy that elevated democracy promotion as a central objective of his foreign policy agenda.

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Political ReformDemocracyForeign PolicyNorth AmericaUnited StatesMiddle East
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